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Oregon State leads Pac-12 Baseball and nation

5 - For the fifth-straight week Oregon State tops the national rankings in the USA Today poll, NCWBA poll, Collegiate Baseball poll, and the Baseball America poll.

2 - California’s Andrew Vaughn, the Pac-12 Player of the Week, received two national weekly honors this week: Collegiate Baseball’s National Player of the Week and College Sports Madness Field Player of the Week.

9, 11 - For the ninth-straight USA Today poll and eleventh-straight NCBWA poll Oregon State and Arizona are ranked. The two teams have been ranked since the preseason poll for both polls.

4 - Four Pac-12 athletes appear on the NCBWA Midseason Stopper of the Year Watch List, the second most of any conference: Colton Hock, STAN; Erik Martinez, CAL; Jake Mulholland, OSU; Kenyon Yovan, ORE.

5, 7 - Pac-12 teams lead in the nation in five statistic categories. All five are held by No. 1 Oregon State, inlcuding ERA (1.88), hits allowed per nine innings (6.17), shutouts (8), WHIP (0.99), and WL percentage (0.914). Seven individual Pac-12 players also top the national statistics.

NOTES

WEEKLY RECAP: Oregon State leads the nation for the fifth-straight week after going 2-1 on the week against UCLA. Utah (vs. Arizona), Stanford (vs. Oregon), and California (vs. USC) all went 3-0 on the weekend for Conference play. Washington State (vs. Washington) and Arizona State (vs. CSU Bakersfield) went 2-1 for their three-games series. Washington beat Seattle to open its week of play. On Tuesday, Washington State lost to Gonzaga, Washington beat Seattle, Utah beat Utah Valley, UCLA beat Long Beach State, Stanford beat Santa Clara, California lost to USF, and Arizona beat New Mexico State.

NUMBERS GAME: No. 1 Oregon State currently leads the nation in five statistics categories: ERA (1.88), hits allowed per nine innings (6.17), shutouts (8), WHIP (0.99), and WL percentage (0.914). No. 7 Arizona is seventh in batting average (0.324), sixth in doubles (98), third in doubles per game (2.51), seventh in on base percentage (0.418), and third in scoring (8.6). Washington is second in fielding percentage (0.984). UCLA is second in sacrifice flies (28). Oregon is second in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.53) and sixth in walks allowed per nine innings (2.43).

INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL STATS LEADERS: Arizona’s JJ Matijevic is eighth in batting average (0.406), first in doubles (22), first in doubles per game (0.56), 11th in hits (65), and fifth in hits per game (1.67). Oregon State’s Luke Heimlich is first in ERA (0.75) and his teammates Jake Mulholland (1.02) and Jake Thompson (1.06) are second and fifth, respectively. Thompson and Heimlich are also third (4.76) and fifth (5.10), respectively, in hits per game. UCLA’s Scott Burke is third in pitching appearances (26) and his teammate Daniel Rasica is fifth in sacrifice bunts per game (0.32), while Sean Bouchard is sixth in sacrifice flies (7). Oregon’s Kenyon Yovan is fourth in saves (12) and his teammate David Peterson is first in strikeout-to-walk ratio (17.40). UCLA’s GriffinCanning is seventh in strikeouts (88) and Oregon’s Peterson is eighth in the category (87). Arizona State’s GageCanning is firts in triples (7) and triples per game (0.18). Oregon State’s Thompson and Oregon’s Peterson are tied for first in victories (8). Oregon State’s Jake Mulholland is fifth in WHIP (0.79) and Oregon State’s Heimlich is seventh (0.80). Oregon’s Peterson is third in walks allowed per nine innings (0.69).

STOPPER OF THE YEAR: The Pac-12 has four student-athletes from four different universities on the NCBWA Midseason Stopper of the Year Preseason Watch List, the second most among all conferences: Stanford’s Colton Hock, California’s Erik Martinez, Oregon State’s Jake Mulholland, and Oregon’s Kenyon Yovan. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association will be presenting the Stopper of the Year Award to the top relief pitcher in Division I baseball for the 13th straight year in 2017.

The USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List features 50 amateurs, seven of which are student-athletes from four different Pac-12 teams. With seven, the Pac-12 has the third-most representatives among all conferences. Stanford leads the way for most representatives by one team, with three Cardinal student-athletes featured, tying Florida and TCU. Now in its 39th year recognizing the top amateur baseball player in the country, seven former Pac-12 baseball players have won the award, most recently pitcher Trevor Bauer of UCLA in 2011.

ALL AMERICANS: The Pac-12 had eight different student-athletes from four different Pac-12 teams featured on Baseball America, NCBWA, and Collegiate Baseball preseason All-America teams.

DRAFT: Every Pac-12 school had at least one student-athlete drafted in the 2016 MLB Draft: Arizona (7), Arizona State (5), California (7), Oregon (5), Oregon State (5), Stanford (4), UCLA (5), USC (12), Utah (1), Washington (3) and Washington State (3). ASU leads all NCAA schools with 414 total MLB draft picks, and at least one Sun Devil has been drafted every year since the draft’s inception in 1965.

FAMILIAR FACES IN THE DUGOUT: After welcoming three new coaches last season, all 11 coaches return for the 2017 season. Second year Arizona head coach Jay Johnson looks to match or beat his performance last season. The Wildcats made it all the way to Game 3 of the NCAA College World Series before falling to Coastal Carolina. Three other Pac-12 teams also made it to the postseason- Arizona State, Utah, and Washington.